Ji Xiangbo, Zheng Shaofeng, Cheng Liping
School of Physical Education and Sport Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
Department of Physical Education, The Open University of Fujian, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
Front Psychol. 2025 Apr 17;16:1430769. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1430769. eCollection 2025.
Physical education (PE) is viewed as an environment conducive to students' life skills development. However, less is known about the processes by which young people develop their life skills in PE. This is particularly the case in non-English speaking countries such as China. Based on self-determination theory, the present study aimed to investigate the relationships between students' perceptions of teacher need-support, basic psychological need satisfaction and their life skills development in PE.
The present study employed a cross-sectional design. Participants were 727 Chinese students ( = 16.93) attending 29 classes from 7 different schools in China. They completed measures assessing these variables. The preliminary analyses used descriptive statistics to determine participants' scores on each variable and correlations to assess the relationship between variables. Mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate the tested models.
In all analyses, structure, autonomy support, involvement, and total teacher need-support was positively correlated with total psychological need-satisfaction, which, in turn, positively correlated with students' life skills development in PE. The mediation analyses showed that total psychological need-satisfaction was a key mediator between teacher need-support and students' life skills development in PE.
This study thus provides actionable insights into the role that teacher need-support plays in satisfying students' basic psychological needs and, in turn, developing students' life skills in PE. The findings highlight that teachers should exhibit need-support (e.g., provide students with constructive, clear, and self-oriented feedback; identify students' interests, preferences and acknowledge their opinions; and develop an effective bond with students) in order to satisfy students' three basic psychological needs and promote their life skills development in PE.
体育教育被视为有利于学生生活技能发展的环境。然而，对于年轻人在体育教育中发展生活技能的过程，我们了解得较少。在非英语国家，如中国，情况尤其如此。基于自我决定理论，本研究旨在探讨学生对教师需求支持的感知、基本心理需求满足与他们在体育教育中的生活技能发展之间的关系。
本研究采用横断面设计。参与者为来自中国7所不同学校29个班级的727名中国学生（平均年龄 = 16.93岁）。他们完成了评估这些变量的测量。初步分析使用描述性统计来确定参与者在每个变量上的得分，并使用相关性分析来评估变量之间的关系。进行中介分析以评估所测试的模型。
在所有分析中，结构、自主支持、参与度和教师总需求支持与心理需求总满足感呈正相关，而心理需求总满足感又与学生在体育教育中的生活技能发展呈正相关。中介分析表明，心理需求总满足感是教师需求支持与学生在体育教育中的生活技能发展之间的关键中介变量。
因此，本研究为教师需求支持在满足学生基本心理需求以及进而在体育教育中培养学生生活技能方面所起的作用提供了可操作的见解。研究结果强调，教师应表现出需求支持（例如，为学生提供建设性、清晰且以自我为导向的反馈；识别学生的兴趣、偏好并认可他们的意见；与学生建立有效的联系），以满足学生的三种基本心理需求，并促进他们在体育教育中的生活技能发展。
